Weston Price Smile March 9, 2008

This is Yensi, our wonderful nanny, smiling her beautiful smile.

Look at those perfectly straight, white teeth! She never wore braces and has never had a cavity.

And look at her gorgeous bone structure. High cheekbones and a wide palate.

Yensi moved here from Guatemala when she was seven years old. As a child, she was fed raw milk from grass-fed cows, liver, egg yolks, bone broth, and cod liver oil. They made their own bread and tortillas and the grains and beans were always soaked. Yensi said they soaked the grains for their bread for two weeks. They also drank kefir (which they call bulgaros) and a fermented drink similar to kombucha (called chicha).

And no, it’s not just genetic. It’s the food! Her younger brothers have grown up on modern American food and have crooked teeth and lots of cavities.

Compare these two photos of Seminole Indians, taken by Weston Price (published in his book, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”):

The “primitive” Seminole girl (left) has a wide face with plenty of room for dental arches. The “modernized” Seminole girl (right), born to parents who had abandoned their traditional diets, has a narrowed face, crowded teeth, and a reduced immunity to disease.

Snoring, Dentists, and Waldorf Schools February 11, 2008

We went to the dentist this morning. It was Seth’s appointment but Kate and I went along to meet him.

He is a WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation) dentist. His name is Dr. Silkman and he wrote this fascinating article.

He had a shelf displaying herbal toothpastes and mouthwashes and cod liver oil for sale. And there was a copy of “Nourishing Traditions” on the bookshelf in the waiting room.

Seth and I are going to have all our metal fillings and crowns replaced. Dr. Silkman is also going to fit Seth for an “adjuster” to help with his snoring. Dr. Silkman believes that a narrow palette and high arch is what causes snoring, due to the fact that you can’t get enough air. So if you wear a special “adjuster” you get the air you need and you don’t snore.

Weston Price found that native peoples who ate nutrient-dense diets (grass-fed meat and dairy, seafood, whole grains, fermented foods) had very wide palettes and properly developed skeletal structure. He found that when they started eating “modern” foods like refined white flour and sugar, their palettes and faces became more narrow. (The women also had more narrow hips, and the men had more narrow shoulders.)

Hence, the cod liver oil in Dr. Silkman’s office. Not only does cod liver oil and nutrient dense diets help prevent cavities, it also promotes healthy development of skeletal structure. Proper skeletal structure prevents all kinds of problems, including snoring, sleep apnea, deviated septums, etc.

See Dr. Silkman’s article to read more.

After the appointment, I came home and put some turkey necks in the crock pot for turkey stock, took the dandelion out of the dehydrator (going to use it to make tea), and took the baby food out of the ice cube trays in the freezer and put them in ziploc bags.

Yensi and I made baby food this weekend. We froze lots of organic fruits and some vegetables (everything was stewed or boiled except for the mango, per WAPF guidelines):

Blueberries
Raspberries
Cherries
Blackberries
Mango
Peaches
Broccoli
Peas

I still need to do two more batches:

Strawberries
Kale

I’ve been working on planning my garden. I have GOT to get this done before we go on vacation next week.

I also found out some promising information about school for Kate. I got an email from one of the moms on one of my WAPF email lists, recommending Waldorf schools. I guess a lot of the WAPF moms are in favor of Waldorf education. She was responding to another mother who had concerns about the food her child was eating at daycare (sugary snacks, fruit juice with high fructose corn syrup, etc.).

She writes:

We go to a Waldorf school and love it. No concerns about food as they provide, nutritious, organic hot snacks - like veggie soup, lentils and rice, etc. Parents provide some of the food too, but we use all organic, local food mostly. When they have treats, which is on birthdays and some holidays, it’s usually made with flour they grind in class and they use only unrefined sugars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen candy in the classroom.

Regarding the education, she says:

Both my girls are still in kindergarten and they have lots of movement all day. Most of their ‘learning’ is through rhymes, stories, circle time, and such. They also have a great outdoor program so they are out in nature about 2 hours a day, just playing, hiking and being children. They teach to the hands, heart and head so although academics is taught it is not the only aspect of education they take into account. It is based much more on developmental appropriateness.

Apparently there is a Waldorf school right here in LA!

Here’s what one of the moms on my Peachhead list (an email list for LA moms) says about the local Westside Waldorf school:

“By the time they leave the said the average student can play 2-3 instruments, understand 3 languages, know how to do wood working and sewing. All of them get their #1 or #2 high school pick as well.”

YAY! Doesn’t that sound fantastic? I like the focus on nature, I like that they learn crafts and work with their hands, I like the focus on the arts, and it sounds like they eat really well. Sounds really good to me.

I’m going to look into doing a tour. Yes, it’s true, Kate’s not old enough for school yet but in LA, you have to start very early. All the moms here say you have to start touring when they are about 9 or 10 months old. And Kate will be 10 months on Wednesday. I gotta get cracking!

Back to my garden planning…

Michael Pollan on Milk January 7, 2008

I was just listening to Michael Pollan on the Everyday Foods show on Martha Stewart’s channel on Sirius radio.

I am really loving his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma so I was excited to hear him on the radio.

However, I completely disagreed with him!

A woman called in and asked about feeding whole milk to children and what about obesity.

He said soda is the main cause of obesity.

I agree with that, because soda contains high fructose corn syrup.

However, it is not only soda that causes obesity in children. A lot of moms are feeding their children fruit juice and white bread products and crackers. Fruit juice is often loaded with high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar. And refined flour products and sugar also cause obesity.

He also said that giving children whole milk is preferable to giving them soda.

OK, yes, agreed. (Whole milk is also preferable to fruit juice, particularly fruit juice with added sugar and/or HFCS.)

Then he said that most milk has growth hormones in it so it is not safe to drink.

Agreed.

The caller asked, “Even organic?”

He said, “Yes. Even organic.”

I agree with that. Just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it’s healthy.

However, he didn’t talk about grain-fed vs. grass fed.

Most milk comes from grain-fed cows (even the organic milk) and is not safe to drink because those cows are not healthy — because eating such an unnatural diet makes them sick. I’m not sure why he didn’t mention this fact because he writes about it at length in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

And why didn’t he mention the dairies out there that are producing HEALTHY milk from grass-fed cows? Cows that receive no growth hormones and no antibiotics and eat only green pasture and hay?

He made it sound like all milk is bad. Which is NOT true!

He went on to say that if you are going to give your children milk, you should give them low-fat milk because, while fat is not as bad as we thought it was, lots of saturated fat is not good for you.

Huh? He lost me. What is the basis for that statement?

Mothers around the world have been feeding babies and children milk — human milk as well as milk from cows, goats, and camels — for thousands of years. We have only recently — in the past few decades — seen a huge surge of obesity and diabetes.

Sure, it might be due to hormones in milk and meat but most likely it has a lot more to do with the sharp increase in other things we are now feeding our children for the first time in history: large amounts of refined grains, flours and sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Weston Price studied many cultures all over the world that fed their children meat or fish and dairy almost exclusively (the Eskimos, many African tribes, people living in the Swiss Alps, Scottish fishermen, etc. etc. etc.).

They had no obesity, no diabetes. No degenerative diseases whatsoever.

You can read his entire book online here and see for yourself:

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

Just look at the pictures and tell me those kids aren’t healthy. And what were they eating? Whole raw milk, butter, cheese. Meat, seafood. Whole grains and some vegetables and fruits. Some nuts and seeds.

These are people who got over 50% of their nutrition from fat, much of it saturated fat. And they had no degenerative disease.

Anyway, back to Pollan. He went on to say that humans are not meant to drink milk and that they can get the same nutrients from broccoli. He made some point about cows only drinking milk for 6 months — and then the go on to eat grass and get all their nutrients from grass.

Um, Michael? Did you forget something?

Humans are not cows. Cows have 6 stomachs. We have one.

They have a completely different digestive system than humans.

Here’s an interesting article about the human digestive system compared to carnivorous animals like dogs versus herbivorous animals like sheep:

Comparison Between the Digestive Tracts of a Carnivore, a Herbivore and Man

Just look at that chart on that page and tell me we should be eating mostly plants.

We are not herbivores.

And yet Michael Pollan’s advice to us is, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Why? Based on WHAT?

Feeding babies broccoli instead of milk. Sheesh!

What do you say about this, Michael:

Mother’s milk provides a higher proportion of cholesterol than almost any other food. It also contains over 50% of its calories as fat, much of it saturated fat. Both cholesterol and saturated fat are essential for growth in babies and children, especially the development of the brain. Yet, the American Heart Association is now recommending a low-cholesterol, lowfat diet for children! Commercial formulas are low in saturated fats and soy formulas are devoid of cholesterol. A recent study linked lowfat diets with failure to thrive in children.

The Skinny on Fats - WAPF

Somehow I can’t imagine myself rocking my baby to sleep with a broccoli floret instead of a bottle of milk.

What If Fat Isn’t So Bad? January 4, 2008

MSNBC reports:

Suppose you were forced to live on a diet of red meat and whole milk. A diet that, all told, was at least 60 percent fat — about half of it saturated. If your first thoughts are of statins and stents, you may want to consider the curious case of the Masai, a nomadic tribe in Kenya and Tanzania.

In the 1960s, a Vanderbilt University scientist named George Mann, M.D., found that Masai men consumed this very diet (supplemented with blood from the cattle they herded). Yet these nomads, who were also very lean, had some of the lowest levels of cholesterol ever measured and were virtually free of heart disease.

Scientists, confused by the finding, argued that the tribe must have certain genetic protections against developing high cholesterol. But when British researchers monitored a group of Masai men who moved to Nairobi and began consuming a more modern diet, they discovered that the men’s cholesterol subsequently skyrocketed.

Weston Price studied the Masai as well:

Africa also afforded Dr. Price the opportunity to compare primitive groups composed largely of meat eaters, with those that were mostly vegetarian. The Masai of Tankanika, Chewya of Kenya, Muhima of Uganda, Watusi of Ruanda and the Neurs tribes on the western side of the Nile in the Sudan were all cattle-keeping people. Their diets consisted largely of milk, blood and meat, supplemented in some cases with fish and with small amounts of grains, fruits and vegetables.

Rich in animal fats, these diets provided large amounts of the fat-soluble vitamins Price discovered to be so necessary for proper development of the physical body and freedom from disease. The Neurs especially valued the livers of animals, considered so sacred “that it may not be touched by human hands. . . It is eaten both raw and cooked.”

These tribes were noted for their fine physiques and great height—in some groups the women averaged over 6 feet tall, and many men reached almost seven feet.

Examinations of their teeth revealed very few caries, usually less than 0.5%. Nowhere in his travels had Price yet found groups that had no cavities at all, yet among the cattle-herding tribes of Africa, Dr. Price found six tribes that were completely free of dental decay. Furthermore, all members of these tribes exhibited straight, uncrowded teeth.

Largely vegetarian Bantu tribes such as the Kikuyu and Wakamba were agriculturists. Their diet consisted of sweet potatoes, corn, beans, bananas, millet and Kafir corn or sorghum. They were less robust than their meat-eating neighbors, and tended to be dominated by them. Price found that vegetarian groups had some tooth decay—usually around 5% or 6% of all teeth, still small numbers compared to Whites living off store-bought foods. Even among these largely vegetarian tribes, however, dental occlusions were rare, as were degenerative diseases.

The healthiest tribe that Price studied was the Dinkas, a Sudanese tribe on the western bank of the Nile. They were not as tall as the cattle-herding Neurs groups but they were physically better proportioned and had greater strength. Their diet consisted mainly of fish and cereal grains. This is perhaps the greatest lesson of Price’s African research—that a diet of whole foods, one that avoids the extremes of the carnivorous Masai and the largely vegetarian Bantu, but incorporates both nutrient dense grains and seafood, ensures optimum physical development.

Sources: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116724 and http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/out_of_africa.html

Sally Fallon on Fats and Why They are Essential December 21, 2007

Fascinating interview with Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation on essential fatty acids and why saturated fats are critical to good health.

Also how good saturated fats like butter, lard, duck and goose fat, and coconut and palm oil were driven out of the marketplace by corporations profiting off of soybean oil:

http://www.metrofarm.com/assets/podcasts/2007-12-01_567dfat.mp3

Broth, sugar, and healthy people with no cavities November 30, 2007

It was a grey day in LA. Rainy and cold and dreary. This kind of weather is so rare in LA, so when it happens, it's kind of fun. Like a snow day or a blackout.

I had soaked some oatmeal last night, so this morning I got to wake up to coffee and a bowl of comforting oatmeal with raisins and maple syrup garnished with a little raw milk.

For lunch I used some of the turkey stock (from the turkey carcass) and leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, added a few carrots, some parsley and sea salt, and made the most delicious, comforting soup for Seth and Alla and myself.

Tonight after dinner I was reading my new friend Louisa’s blog. Even though she lives in the French Alps, I found her online because she and I are into all the same stuff health- and food-wise. Weston Price, raw milk, etc.

Anyway, it was so cool to read that she was feeding her family bone broth today too.

http://quatrepattes.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/comfort-for-a-little-one/

Kate LOVES broth. Absolutely loves it. I feed it to her with a little liver pate mixed in. She likes squash, but she LOVES broth. She can't lap it up fast enough.

This afternoon I made zucchini bread from the “Nourishing Traditions” cookbook. It came out great. Very moist. Maybe a tiny bit too sweet (I added extra maple syrup and uncalled for Rapadura). Next time I'll make it a little less sweet. I might make some other adjustments as well.

I have to say though… I think my taste buds are changing. I don't want sweets as much anymore. I used to eat 2-3 chocolate chip cookies almost every night. I used to crave chocolate and sweets. Now I really don't. I can go days, weeks, months even — and I don't care about eating sweets at all. Every once in a while I will have a chocolate chip cookie before bed (I got the kind that are frozen but it's all-natural ingredients). I can only eat one. Even then, it feels like a tad too much.

Sweets just taste TOO sweet for me now. That Halloween party where I had the Bluebonnet Cafe cupcake — it made me dizzy and kind of nauseous. And I only ate half! And I used to be able to devour those cupcakes.

I know part of it is the fact that I am not eating sugar. I don't know the last time I ate real sugar. I've only been eating stevia, maple syrup, raw honey, agave nectar (which I found out I'm not supposed to be eating) and Rapadura.

I think part of it might also have to do with the amount of fat I am eating now. Good fats. Butter, coconut oil, whole milk, eggs. I am satiated. I don't crave anything. I wonder if part of the reason people crave sweets is because they need more fat.

I'm struck by that statistic I read today — that breast milk is over 50% fat and loaded with cholesterol. If fat and cholesterol are bad for you, then why is breast milk — the epitome of health food for humans — loaded with it?

And then you read Weston Price's book (I'm halfway through) and all these people from around the world are eating diets of 50% or more of saturated fat. And they are the healthiest people on the planet. No degenerative diseases. No cancer. No heart disease. No diabetes or arthritis. No obesity. Very, very few cavities. They had no need for doctors or dentists.

What did they eat? Different things, depending on where they lived. The Eskimos ate differently than the people living in the Swiss Alps or African tribes. But overall they all ate a very similar diet — a lot of saturated fat, some vegetables, lots of meat, fish and/or dairy, and occasionally whole grains. Zero refined flour or sugar.

The people in the Swiss Alps for example, lived on raw milk, cheese, butter, whole grain rye bread, some vegetables, and, once a week they had meat. These people had almost no cavities. And no degenerative diseases. Am I repeating myself? I can't help it. It's just astounding to me! Can you imagine never having to see a doctor or dentist?

So interesting… I read that book about babies and sleep (”Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” by Dr. Weissbluth) and it says that sleep begets sleep. In other words, the more you help your baby get his or her rest, the better and more he will sleep. Likewise, it's eat fat to lose fat. Eat more fat and you will want to eat less and you will lose fat. Counter-intuitive, eh?

I'm watching “What Not to Wear”. They're making over a Rastafarian hippie with dreadlocks that look like really long turds. When I was in the hospital with Kate, I watched this a few times while I was nursing her. It reminds me of that special time. It was so wonderful being in the hospital with our perfect baby, so in awe of and in love with her.

I can't believe how big she's gotten over the past several months. She's so alert and curious and she's crawling and babbling and she even did her first sign the other day. Monkey. You make the sign by scratching under your arms like a monkey.

She also waves now — hi and goodbye. Not consistently — but when she does it, it is clear that she knows what she is doing.

It's so fun cuddling with her and nuzzling and kissing those cheeks, that belly, those toes. She's such a delectable baby. And it's fun learning about who she is. She has a strong personality. Independent, unflappable, curious, determined. And she definitely has a good sense of humor. That's obvious already. Very bright, too. It's interesting to me that their personalities emerge so early.

Time for some milk and then bed.

Post-Thanksgiving exhaustion, vaccines, and soy oil November 23, 2007

Kate is down for the night. I'm soaking raw pumpkin seeds (from the pumpkins I used for pumpkin pie) and simmering the turkey carcass to make stock.

I'm so exhausted. The past week has been a whirlwind of shopping, menu planning, roasting, basting, measuring, mixing, baking and cleaning. I feel like I need a vacation now.

Which of course I'm not getting. I went to bed after 11:30 pm last night (trying to wind down after such a long day) and got up at 6:30 to tend to Kate. And I tended to her all day — picking her up and kissing her when she bonked her head on the metal coffee table, feeding her ground turkey with chicken liver pate and butternut squash with butter, doing dishes, doing laundry, heating up bottles and changing poopy diapers. She went down at 5 pm, as usual. A 10 and a half hour day — not so bad. Mothers don't get a day off.

My single friends spent the day at the movies. Last night at dinner, they talked about all the movies they'd seen lately. I couldn't really add anything to the conversation. And for much of it, I had no idea what they were talking about. Being a new parent, I haven't seen a movie in the theater since I tried to go see “Oceans 13″ when Kate was a couple of months old and she pooped halfway up her backside and we had to leave the theater.

Ah, memories…

Anyway, I'm not complaining. I have seen enough movies for a lifetime. Okay, not for a lifetime, but I can skip seeing movies for a while is all I'm saying. And Seth gets those “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION” movies so I guess I could be watching movies if I really wanted to. We just got “Into the Wild” in the mail for example.

But instead I am relaxing with a glass of wine, reading about vaccines. The more I read, the more I am convinced that waiting on vaccines — or refusing them altogether — is the right thing to do.

Read this:

Because of the dramatic increase in the number of injuries from childhood vaccines over the past decades, Congress enacted the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, setting up a fund to compensate parents for injured or dead children (as if a parent could ever be “compensated” for the loss of their child due to vaccination). Application to this fund is the first step parents must take when their child has been harmed; thus, the fund serves to shield the pharmaceutical company from all initial liability. To date, the fund has paid out over $1.2 billion to parents with over 12,000 reports made every year. This is a staggering number considering how many reactions occur that medical authorities refuse to attribute to the vaccine. And if David Kessler is correct and 90-99 percent of all injuries are not even reported, the true number of children injured or killed by vaccines would be 1.2 million or more per year.

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/vaccinations.html

Doesn't that scare you? It scares me. And that's just a taste of what I'm reading. I'm not just reading the crackpot left-wing fringe websites either. I told that pediatrician I would research it and I am. I'm reading everything.

Read this, from the CBS News site (not exactly a crackpot left-wing fringe website):

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/06/15/couricandco/entry2934107.shtml

Come on, people. One in 160 kids with autism. That is CRAZY. If vaccines are not to blame, something else is. Something is not right.

Here's another heinous thing I read — about the Hepatitis B shot, which is now administered at birth:

A flagrant example of the poor science behind vaccination development, the FDA approved the vaccine for use after only 1636 doses of Recombivax HB were administered to only 653 children who were subsequently monitored for only 5 days after each dose.6 Since the vaccine is recommended for the first day of life, Merck was asked for safety data on newborns. They replied, “We have none. Our studies were done on 5- and 10-year-olds.”7 Further, Merck admitted in 1996 that no data is “available for the simultaneous administration of Recombivax HB with other vaccines” even though children are routinely given other vaccines along with Recombivax HB vaccine.

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/vaccinations.html

Good Lord! They test cough medicine more than that.

Oh, wait. Maybe not: http://www.newstarget.com/022209.html

Do I really want my child to be a guinea pig for the likes of Merck? And Hepatitis B is only transmitted through sex and dirty needles. Hmm — yeah, I guess Kate was high risk, seeing how there's so much casual sex and intravenous drug usage in the maternity ward. Oh, yes, a mother can infect her baby during birth — but couldn't they just administer a simple blood test to the mothers instead of giving our newborns a shot?

Oh, right, a blood test COSTS them money. The Hep B shot MAKES them money.

Anyway, I'll keep reading. I'll keep researching. As I said, when and if I find enough evidence to convince me that vaccines are safe and beneficial, we'll get them for Kate.

I have also been thinking a lot about baby food. Since lately Kate is eating 2 (soon to be 3) squares a day.

The recommendation from pediatricians is to start babies on rice cereal.

Have you read the label on a box of Gerber rice cereal lately? I had bought some for Kate — it was sitting in the cupboard. Needless to say, after reading the ingredients, I promptly dumped it in the trash.

Rice Flour , Soy Oil-Lecithin , Tri- and Dicalcium Phosphate , Tocopherols Vitamin E , Electrolytic Iron , Zinc Sulfate , Niacinamide a B Vitamin , Riboflavin Vitamin B-2 , Pyridoxine Hydrochloride Vitamin B-6 , Thiamin Vitamin B-1 , Folic Acid a B Vitamin , Vitamin B-12 Cyanocobalamin

Number 2 ingredient: Soy oil-lecithin.

Do you know what that is?

First of all, it's a genetically modified food. (http://www.safe-food.org/-consumer/shop.html)

Do you know what that means? No? Neither do I exactly. So WHY are we feeding it to our babies? Genetically modified foods are… well, just google it and look:

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/AboutGeneticallyModifiedFoods/index.cfm
http://www.organicconsumers.org/gelink.cfm
http://www.netlink.de/gen/fagan.html

Need I go on? No, I need not. Suffice it to say that CLEARLY it would be better to give a 7-month old baby REAL food instead of “Franken-food” that has zillions of websites chronicling its dangers.

OK so we've established that GM foods are sketchy and possibly dangerous and at the very least, should be avoided due to the fact that (a) most people don't know what they are and (b) most people don't know what they do to you.

Let's get back to the issue at hand. Soy oil-lecithin.

Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a “degumming” process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid.

Historian William Shurtleff reports that the expansion of the soybean crushing and soy oil refining industries in Europe after 1908 led to a problem disposing the increasing amounts of fermenting, foul-smelling sludge. German companies then decided to vacuum dry the sludge, patent the process and sell it as “soybean lecithin.” Scientists hired to find some use for the substance cooked up more than a thousand new uses by 1939.8

Today lecithin is ubiquitous in the processed food supply. It is most commonly used as an emulsifier to keep water and fats from separating in foods such as margarine, peanut butter, chocolate candies, ice cream, coffee creamers and infant formulas.

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/lecithin.html

But the fact that soy oil-lecithin is a highly refined genetically modified waste food product is not the only concern at hand…

There are a number of potential problems with eating soy:

http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/03summary.htm

Endocrine disrupter. Reduction of vitamin assimilation. Potentially leads to thyroid cancer. MSG. Aluminum.

Aaaagggghhhhh. Great. Let's mess with Kate's endocrine system, reduce her vitamin absorption, and make her susceptible to obesity, diabetes, infertility and cancer.

WHY is this the number 2 ingredient in Gerber rice cereal? Why is soy oil-lecithin an ingredient in rice cereal at all? Why is THIS promoted as baby's first food?

Why don't they just make rice cereal out of rice? Maybe add a little butter.

Oh, right, then it wouldn't have the shelf life it does (nearly indefinite).

Why is soy oil the third ingredient listed in Enfamil infant formula? (http://www.epinions.com/content_237968723588)

The fifth ingredient in Similac? (http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100367&navAction=jump&navCount=0&id=prod3061)

The third ingredient in Nestle Good Start? (http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Essentials-Infant-Formula-Powder/dp/B000GCL5HO)

Doesn't that make you go HMMM?

It's in everything — including baby food — because it is a cheap industrial-grade product. Soy is cheap to grow and produce.

Makes you wonder if this has anything to do with children's declining immunity, allergies to peanuts, increased diabetes, early-onset puberty, etc.

A better use for soy oil?

Biodiesel!

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/biodiesel.html

It can make cars run — just like gasoline. Is that what we should be putting in our babies' bodies?

I leave you with this (a good article on soy):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/13/CMGJKK1BP31.DTL

Note the last quotation from Marion Nestle: “People don't have to eat soy if they don't want to!” Nestle says. Uh, okay, I guess not — but what if it's in everything we buy?

Homemade baby food November 17, 2007

Busy day today. Got up, nursed, made coffee, did dishes and laundry, and whipped up breakfast for Kate: 1/4 tsp cod liver oil, a soft-boiled egg yolk with frozen organic grass-fed liver grated over it, and some defrosted applesauce (homemade from organic apples).

Then I made a batch of baby formula and packed lunch. Wasa whole wheat crackers, raw cheese, an apple, some raw milk with two egg yolks mixed in for me, and some applesauce, butternut squash (leftover from dinner last night) and formula for her. Then she napped, I showered, and we headed over to the park to meet my mother's group.

I think Kate is going to be a tomboy. She tried to pull grass and eat leaves the whole time we were at the park. I wouldn't really mind if she ate leaves — I'm sure it wouldn't hurt her. But I don't want her to choke on them. So the whole time I had to keep moving her. She could care less about her toys and didn't want to stay on the blanket. Finally she found the wheels on the stroller and that kept her occupied for a while.

I keep flashing back on Seth's baby photos — he was probably like a year and a half and he was carrying around a tire. A TIRE. Sheesh!

She is also still *almost* crawling. She creeps and slithers around the floor like the Grinch.

Oh, and did I mention that she is WAVING? She does that backward wave — opening and closing her fingers. I wasn't sure if she understood that it was a wave, but then yesterday we were at Surfas buying kitchen and gourmet supplies for Thanskgiving and she waved at the people behind the counter! I think it's that “Sharing Signs” video we watch every day. She is learning!

When she gets up from her nap we are going to go downtown to the Organic Pastures store to get milk and cream. I am going to need a lot for Thanksgiving. Sarah's talking about going over to Rawesome too — maybe we'll go with her. I need more eggs and butter for my pies, and milk and cream for homemade ice cream.

I picked up some chicken livers the other day at Whole Foods. I'm going to start feeding it to Kate. When I saw the pediatrician yesterday, she said I needed to feed Kate cereal for the iron. But I don't want to give her cereal yet because it is not easy to digest (and WAPF doesn't recommend giving it to a baby this early).

In the US, Dr. Nancy Krebs headed up a large infant growth study that found breastfed infants who received puréed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months grew at a slightly faster rate. Kreb's study suggests that inadequate protein or zinc from common first foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. More importantly, both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat. Thus, the custom of providing large amounts of cereals and excluding meats before seven months of age may short-change the nutritional requirements of the infant.

Meat is also an excellent source of iron. Heme iron (the form of iron found in meat) is better absorbed than iron from plant sources (non-heme). Additionally, the protein in meat helps the baby more easily absorb iron from other foods. Two recent studies, have examined iron status in breastfed infants who received meat earlier in the weaning period. While researchers found no measurable change in breastfed babies' iron stores when they received an increased amount of meat, the levels of hemoglobin (iron-containing cells) circulating in the bloodstream did increase. Meat also contains a much greater amount of zinc than cereals, which means more is absorbed. These studies confirm the practices of traditional peoples, who gave meat — usually liver — as the first weaning food. Furthermore, the incidence of allergic reactions to meat is minimal and lower still when puréed varieties are used. (http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html)

So I am feeding her beef liver and chicken liver instead of cereal. Apparently there is almost as much iron in liver as there is in fortified cereal (http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/iron_requirements.html) AND it is actually a lot better in terms of absorption (15-30% for meat sources of iron compared to 5% for other sources)

I've been taking beef liver tablets to make sure I get my iron. Because I'm not crazy about liver.

And I just found this recipe for chicken liver pate:

http://www.jacquespepin.net/members/recipes/chickenliverpate.html

Yum! Sounds good! Maybe Seth will even eat it.

I'm also going to whip up some more varieties of baby food for Kate, purees that I can freeze: beets, carrots, ans sweet potatoes.

I also have to render my leaf lard today.

Curing cavities with nutrition November 7, 2007

This is fascinating…

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=399989

These mothers are talking about curing cavities with nutrition — how eating the WAPF (Weston A Price Foundation — http://www.westonaprice.org) diet has actually remineralized their teeth. In other words, it can reverse and heal cavities.

One of the really interesting things you will see if you read the thread is that two of the moms whose children had really bad tooth decay at a very young age (under 3) were both vegetarians.

This makes sense — since you can't get vitamin D from plant foods. And calcium is what builds bone — but you can't absorb and use calcium unless you are getting enough vitamin D.

The other thing that is really interesting is that one of them cites a case where cavities were halted/prevented when the only thing that was changed in the diet was that raw milk was added (a case from a London orphanage).

Amazing!

I've always had a lot of cavities. I'll be interested to see how much better my teeth are by say a year or so — now that I'm eating this way.